I received a lot of great feedback about the post I did on getting mom bloggers started with product reviews. So, what is the step after you have signed up with those companies? Getting your name out and creating personal relationships with PR people.

So, yeah, that can be kind of scary to just ‘cold call’ on a pr rep. Guess what? A lot of times they are just as nervous to reach out to you. Sometimes, they are actually afraid YOU will reject THEM. But, not to worry, I work with some really great reps and I asked a few how they would feel about having you reach out to them. The ones I listed below would be thrilled to get an introduction from you. They are listed in no particular order at all. Just send them a note introducing yourself and what your blog is about. Tell them a little about “your average reader” and what types of projects you see being a good fit for you. You really don’t need to send them stats. They can look that up really easily when they get to know you and on that note, don’t ever, ever ‘stretch the truth’ on your numbers. It takes 2 seconds for them to use the very basic level of compete.com to check you out and from my experience, getting pitched for certain things is not always about your stats. Most of the time, they are looking for people who are genuine, authentic, and can reach the target audience. In other words, are you a good fit?

My sample intro for this blog would probably go like this *edit note: lots of pr peeps are telling me that they are getting a copy and paste of the below from bloggers. Please be original. This is only a sample:

“Hi, my name is Barb and I was reading on Elementary Spirits that you are looking to connect with some new bloggers. I typically write about my family, homeschooling, and blogging. I would say that most of my readers are moms, and some are bloggers themselves. I would love to work on any family friendly pr campaigns you have coming up. I really enjoy writing about science, reading and charitable events. If you could keep me in mind for any future projects, I would really appreciate it!”

I have purposely left out what brands these reps work with. They are more than invited to leave a comment with more specifics on their clients if they would like. Some, it will be pretty darn obvious I think it is more important to connect with them on a personal level first. Some of these reps work with many different clients or work in offices that cover 100′s or 1000′s. Just like with us, they tend to pass on the names of good bloggers to each other.

Josslynne Welch: jwelch AT litzkypr DOT com

Susan Wells: susan AT stevespangler DOT com

Jeff Esposito: jesposito AT vistaprint DOT com

Melissa Garcia: @fastfixin on twitter

Marie Baker: mb AT childsplaypr DOT com

Erin Connolly: Erin.Connolly AT adventure DOT com

Alexandra Demers – Burson Marsteller – Alexandra.Demers AT BM DOT com

Above are some of my favorites that said it was OK to share their information. Once your name gets out into the blogoshere as someone looking to work with brands, you will need to start setting your guidelines. I will talk about that in a future post. For now, enjoy getting to know some new people!

The comments are open to any PR rep who would like to leave their contact info for bloggers to reach out to them. Also, bloggers, feel free to do a little self-pitchin’ in the comments too!